The Wenatchee High School Hall of Fame contains 86 former athletes and coaches, dating as far back as 1905, with an assortment of backgrounds and stories. One of these stories stands out from the rest, and that story belongs to 2013 inductee Ron Duncan.

The induction process is fairly simple. Someone from the community nominates a former WHS athlete or coach and then a committee including the athletic director reviews the nomination and decides who makes the cut.

Two years ago, Raymond Johnston, a former teammate of Duncan’s from high school, nominated Duncan to be inducted into the Panther Hall of Fame, but there was just one minor problem. Duncan, although he had attended Wenatchee High School, never received a diploma.

“In my [Hall of Fame] committee they were looking at the nominations [when they noticed] he hadn’t actually graduated high school, according to the paperwork,” Athletic Director BJ Kuntz said. “Our committee said he can’t go into the Hall of Fame if he hasn’t actually graduated.”

Duncan had an impressive high school career, playing “the only three sports they had” at WHS in the 1940s: football, basketball, and track. While he played football for Wenatchee the team went undefeated, and had a total of only 19 points scored against it over two seasons. Postseason play wasn’t an option in those days, but the Wenatchee team was league champion and easily would’ve claimed the State title if given the chance. Duncan was also a standout athlete in basketball and league champion in the high jump.

But his high school career was cut short; after his first semester of senior year, he was drafted into World War II. He served in the Navy at Newport, Rhode Island where there was an officer training center. Duncan trained incoming officers on how to run the destroyers and other ships. When Duncan was drafted, he was told that although he was leaving school a semester early, he had met all of the requirements to graduate, and his diploma would be sent to his mother’s house in Bremerton. But the diploma was never mailed.

Kuntz and the Hall of Fame committee were determined to get Duncan inducted, so she went to Mike Franza, the principal at the time.

“[Duncan] and Mr. Franza did whatever homework they needed to do and they let me know that they were comfortable, based on what they could find, with issuing him a diploma,” Kuntz said. “We used a Hall of Fame induction to give him his diploma and put him in a cap and gown and gave him his diploma. And then, the next year, we could induct him into the Hall of Fame. It was a two-year process.”

After the war was over, he attended Wenatchee Valley College (called Wenatchee Junior College at the time), and played a major role in starting a football team, which was coached by his former high school coach.

“We convinced Doc Conway to come out of retirement,” he said with a chuckle. After his two- year stint at the junior college, Duncan went on to the University of Washington on a football scholarship. Unfortunately, in his first semester at the UW, he suffered a bad ankle sprain. Consequently his scholarship was cut short, and he dropped out of school.

He returned to the Wenatchee Valley, where he has lived ever since, working for both the Chelan and Douglas County PUDs. He is married, and has five children, 17 grandchildren, and 16 (“with another three on the way”) great-grandchildren. Most of them live in the Wenatchee Valley.

To this day, Duncan is still heavily involved in sports. He has been the secretary of Wenatchee Bowling Association for more than 40 years and spends his summers golfing. Duncan also played softball for most of his adult life.

He received his high school diploma 67 years after he should have, but as the saying goes “better late than never.”